


Freak Show

by ktfics



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Magic, Halloween AU, M/M, jester!ouma, werewolf!kaito
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 04:15:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18358421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktfics/pseuds/ktfics
Summary: The circus rolls into town a week before the full moon.





	Freak Show

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on my tumblr @dykeenvy, I'm not currently taking any but follow me there if you wanna talk oumota!

The circus rolls into town a week before the full moon.

Kaito feels even more high-strung than he normally would, and the restless energy thrumming under his skin refuses to find an outlet even after forcing Shuichi, Kaede, and Maki to work out with him earlier in the day. The cafe they’re in now isn’t particularly busy, but each whiff of perfume and slurp of a drink makes his senses grate.

“Ah, Momota-kun, are you feeling alright?” Kaede’s upbeat voice snaps his attention away from a spoon scraping against the bottom of a bowl on the other side of the restaurant and back to their table.

“Uh, yeah! I’m Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! Of course I feel fine!” Maki rolls her eyes at him.

“You snapped a dumbbell in half earlier.” Kaito chuckles and attempts to wave off her concern.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure it was already dented, you can’t blame me for that! I was just feelin’ the grind!” Shuichi puts his hand up to his mouth as if in deep thought, and Kaito hurriedly goes to talk again before the detective could hypothesize. It was hard enough to hide his secret from the group when he disappeared the same time every month, and accidentally crushing the gym equipment earlier certainly didn’t help his case. Hopefully Shuichi would jump to steroids as an explanation before he came up with “werewolf,” but either answer isn’t an assumption Kaito wants the other boy to make of him. 

“I’m just feelin’ a little restless, is all. You all know finals are coming up and I’m excited to ace that shit, that’s all, really!” He gives a thumbs-up and a wink to the group and they seem placated, at least for now. “Hey, c’mon, would I ever lie to you guys?”

Kaede returns his smile with one of her own. “Of course not, Momota-kun! I’m sure we’re all feeling restless because of finals! Ah, remind me to play a song for us when we get back to campus, I know just the melody to settle your nerves!” Kaede begins to talk more about the piece she wants to play and Kaito does his best to listen but his attention is drawn away once again when the door slams open.

He should have this under control by now. He does have this under control by now. There’s nothing he can’t handle, really, and a little lycanthropy is no exception. There’s something about the air this month, though. It feels thick and almost gritty, like he’s breathing in sand. Whatever storm has arrived to their town has settled on top of his skin and no matter what he does he can’t scrub it off.

“Hey, I know!” Kaede’s sudden exclamation in the middle of her own rambling jerks Kaito’s eyes back to her’s. “Why don’t we visit the circus in town this weekend? They’ve got their opening show in a couple days and I’m sure that would help us all take our mind off things!” She raises her fists partway in the air as a familiar look of determination crosses her face.

“Actually,” Kaito interjects before she can get her hopes up too much, “I’m visiting home this weekend, so I’m not gonna be able to make it. Feel free to enjoy the show without me, though!”

“Again?” Maki narrows her eyes at him and begins to worry the bottom of her pigtails.

“Huh?”

“You’re visiting home again? Didn’t you go just last month?” Kaito forces out a laugh.

“Don't look so worried, Harumaki! My grandparents are just a little sick, is all. I like to visit to take care of em’ when I can.” Shuichi removes his hand from his mouth and turns to make eye contact with Kaito.

“Both of them?”

“Uh, yep! They’re both sick! Nothing major, just, y’know, a bad cold. I’ve heard that if you cough too much when you’ve got a cold you can start bleeding, and you know how bad that can be at that age.” No one at the table looks convinced, though they all definitely look worried.

“I’m pretty sure bleeding is bad for you at any age.”

“Ha, ha, classic Harumaki! There’s that sense of humor!” Maki suddenly looks away from him and puffs out her cheeks without responding. Weird.

“Well, I hope your grandparents feel better, Momota-kun!” Kaede clasps her hands together and beams at him. Her expression helps set the rest of the table at ease. “I’m sure you’ll tell us if something’s really wrong, right?”

He does his best to mirror her smile. “Of course! I’ll probably be pretty busy over the weekend taking care of my grandparents and studying though, so I may not be able to keep in contact, just so you guys know! No need to worry over me!” He reaches out to ruffle Maki’s hair who immediately slaps his hand away and the tension at the table settles to a normal level. Kaito allows himself to tune out once again until it’s time to pay and leave.

The truth is, his friend’s worries aren’t completely unfounded. He’s been a werewolf for a couple of years now, but the past few full moons have been bad. He’s been shifting earlier and staying shifted for longer, and the little bit of sentience he used to have as a wolf has faded almost completely.

It’d gotten to the point where he kept breaking through his chains, so he had to relocate from the warehouse near campus that he used to shift in to going as far as he could into the forest and hoping for the best. Of course, all he can remember when he shifts is the feeling of violence, and the source of any resulting blood afterwards is unknowable. He’s been scouring the internet each time he wakes up and there haven’t been any articles about weird animal attacks lately, at the very least.

Still, Kaito is able to stay hopeful that things will be better for most of the month, up until each subsequent full moon arrives and the beast only gets worse. He can already feel his bones start to shift under his skin and his nails push underneath his nail beds. It’s a sensation that’s possible to ignore in the gym or the cafe while he idly talks to his friends, but as soon as he steps outside every cell in his body starts to pulse. The hungriest parts of him begin to bare their teeth before the wolf has even made its appearance, and Kaito fights just to keep his mouth shut.

As soon as they get back to campus, Kaito hastily makes excuses to get back to his dorm room and start to pack. He’s got a train ticket to ride out in two days after he’s done with his classes on Friday, but he’s just going to have to buy another one. Apparently, the beast doesn’t have any consideration for his 4.0.

Kaito is pretty sure he can hear the beat of every heart on the train as he rides towards the most remote location he could buy a ticket to. Upon his arrival, he doesn’t bother stopping at a hotel or calling a taxi before he takes off in a run towards the nearest treeline. He barely makes it to the cover of the forest before the beast decides it’s showtime.

It is still three days before the full moon and Kaito begins to scratch and scratch and scratch at his skin until it shreds beneath his sharpened fingernails. The shift is always painful in new and unexpected ways each month, and the tearing of his own flesh and popping of his bones is particularly terrible this time around. Kaito barely has time to once again regret his past decision to set up his telescope in the middle of the woods one moonlit night two years ago when all thoughts leave his mind entirely. All of a sudden, he is blank and there is nothing to him but the act of wanting.

\--

When he finally wakes up, Kaito is pleasantly surprised. He’s clothed, and as far as he can tell, he’s free of the dried blood that normally flakes off of his skin after a shift, and he’s lying in bed. All things considered, his situation is much better than he had expected it to be.

Well, things are better until he realizes that he has no idea where he is or whose clothes he’s in. He bolts up so suddenly that his legs tangle in the blankets and he tumbles halfway out of bed before managing to right himself. 

“Gooooood morning, sleepyhead!” A playful voice rings out from the other side of the room and the scream that leaves Kaito’s mouth is nothing that he will ever admit to.

Sitting cross-legged on a large circus ball across from his bed is a boy staring at him with porcelain doll-like eyes. He’s small, with purple hair that swoops out underneath a red and blue jester’s hat. The bells on the ends of his hat and overcoat jingle as he cocks his head at Kaito.

“Man, you sure sleep a lot! I was beginning to think you were dead, y’know!” 

He’s in a circus tent. The walls of the room they’re in are actually patchwork fabric that matches the blankets he’s under in their colorful randomness. He’s in a circus tent being talked down to by a clown after transforming into a werewolf. Something about this has to be fake but at this point, Kaito isn’t sure what.

“Who the hell are you?” The boy across from him starts to tear up and Kaito startles.

“What a rude question to ask someone that just saved you-”

“Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“But, if you have to know-” The tears disappear from his eyes in an instant as a grin blooms across his face, and Kaito is taken aback once again. “I’m a clown!”

“Yeah, um, I figured, but, like, what’s your name?” 

“Wellll, most people around here call me boss, but I guess you can call me Ouma. For now!” The jester, Ouma, leans forward excitedly to the point where Kaito is almost afraid he’s going to fall off the ball he’s sitting on, but his balance seems to hold true.

“Boss? Like, a ringleader or-”

“Hey, you’re being rude again! Your name first, let’s be fair here!” Kaito takes a second to breathe in and put on one of his characteristic smiles. His patience seems to be running abnormally thin with the boy in front of him, though he figures it’s understandable considering his situation.

“Momota Kaito, Luminary of the Stars! It’s nice to meet you! Now, I’d appreciate it if you could tell me what I’m doing here and where here is.” He tries to keep his tone even in order to keep the other boy from accusing him of anything again.

“Well, it’s not everyday you meet some packless wolf wandering around!” Kaito’s heart stutters in his chest.

“You- how do you know about- where did you find me?” There’s a million questions he wants to ask, but several that he also doesn’t want answers to. 

“Like I said, I found you wandering around, all alone out there in the forest! Isn’t that sad?” Ouma puts on an exaggerated frown and Kaito’s small amount of patience snaps.

“Why am I here? Why did you-” Ouma cuts him off with a gesture towards the side of the tent.

“Take a look at the calendar, wolf boy.”

It’s been a week and a half since he shifted. The full moon has been over for days now. 

“I need to- I need to call my friends-”

“What you need to do is reevaluate your priorities. You shredded my bedsheets!” The other boy pouts once again and Kaito is about to snap at him before he looks down and realizes what Ouma is alluding to; his knuckles are covered in fur, and his nails taper off into sharp points. The sound of his tail thumping onto the bed beneath him suddenly hits his ears, which are a lot higher up than he remembers them being. What the fuck.

Kaito attempts to swallow around the dryness of his throat. “What’s going on?”

Ouma shrugs and fidgets on the ball he’s perched on top of. “Dunno. But the air sure is strange these days, isn’t it?”

Now that Kaito has come to his senses a bit, multiple realizations hit him at once. Ouma is right; the air is still strange. The feeling of sand-like static is a physical sensation every time he so much as shifts or breathes in. It’s worse than before, and if he squints just right, Kaito can almost convince himself he can see it. 

The air isn’t the only thing in this room that’s wrong, though. As Ouma continues to look at him and move around, Kaito becomes increasingly unsettled. There’s something about him that’s not quite in rhythm, like the sounds he’s making aren’t originating from the correct areas at the right times. His limbs are hard to focus on too, and the edges of his body are either too sharp for his eyes to comprehend or blurred out into the background. Kaito had originally thought the boy’s eyes were like that of a doll’s, and the more he looks, the glassier and faker they seem to appear. His entire face doesn’t align quite right, his expressions either too mechanical or too fluid.

“What are you?” Ouma huffs, and when he starts speaking, Kaito could almost convince himself the other boy appears normal.

“I just said, I’m a clown!” Kaito shuts his eyes tight as if that could make the situation disappear.

“Are you human?” The other boy hums and nods as if he expected the question.

“I gave you your answer already; I’m a clown! I’m afraid that’s all you’re going to get from me for now, nishishi!” The odd laugh throws Kaito off kilter once more.

“The circus- the air- did you do this?” He’s angry, both at the beast and the other boy that continues dancing around his question. No one has ever managed to infuriate him this quickly before, and he’s suffered through several conversations with Iruma.

“You assume I brought the air with me- I just brought the circus!” Ouma giggles and Kaito has had enough.

“Dammit, Kokichi, fucking answer me!” Ouma smiles again and this time, Kaito has a feeling it’s 100% genuine.

“Funny, isn’t it? When exactly did we become such close friends?”

Ouma never told him his first name.

“What’s going on?” He attempts to make his voice come out as steadier than he currently feels.

“Dunno! But the air really is strange these days, and I intend to figure it out. What do you say you and me work together, Kaito-chan?” Ouma stands from where he was seated and walks straight up to Kaito, leaning in towards him with a serious expression on his face that Kaito had never expected to see on the jester. 

“Why me?” The proximity to the other boy is making him burn all over, and a growl rumbles deep in his chest, though Kaito isn’t exactly sure if it’s still from anger or something else entirely.

“Well, you might want to ask the fates that. And I have a feeling you’re not one to turn away from a problem anyways, Mr. Luminary of the Stars-chan. Besides, we make a good team, don’t we?” An answer springs to his tongue before Kaito even registers the question.

“Yeah. We do.” He breathes in, suddenly at a lack for air. “So. What’s the plan?” Kokichi grins at him, and Kaito finds himself grinning back with an excitement that he hasn’t felt in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> I love the aesthetic of this AU so much so I hope I did it justice. Also don't read too much into the plot bc I really don't have anything planned out besides that general aesthetic and I'm prob not gonna write more. Thank you for reading!


End file.
